Sew Pajama Shorts – Easy Project with Free Pattern

Hey y'all - today we're starting Self Sewing Month, aka Sewing for Women Month, with a free pattern to sew Pajama Shorts, Boxer style. I've partnered up with Joann Fabric and Craft Stores for the #SewYourStyle blogger campaign and contest sponsored by Joann and Pellon (Disclaimer - I received compensation for this post. But all opinions are my own, cause I've got plenty) to bring you this tutorial.

Truth: ever since I got married, my favorite thing to sleep in for most of the year is a tank top and boxer shorts. Once I had the excuse of pretending I was buying underwear for my husband, I started buying boxers for myself, tee-hee! Something about the front seams that are typically shifted forward and the easy fit of boxer shorts just makes them soooooo comfy.

BUT - my old boxer shorts had elastic that was shot. So it was time for some new sleepwear. So I drafted up a pattern with the same measurements as my favorite pair, leaving off the fly opening (cause why do I need that?) and made these for #SewYourStyle. (Want to enter the contest yourself? Click over to Joann Fabric and Craft Stores to get all the details)

The challenge is to use quilting cotton for something other than quilting. So I went to Joann to choose some quilting cotton to use, and this wild and retro feeling print caught my eye. Even better when I pulled out the bolt and realized that it was Made in America- which is not always easy to find.

An Instagram follower asked if this fabric was scratchy, and I will say that on the bolt it does not have as soft a hand as, say, a premium designer quilting cotton. But since I had this project in mind already, I decided to buy a yard anyway and see what it felt like after washing. It is a teensy bit on the thick side for quilting cotton, but it's not scratchy after washing. But I wouldn't make a shirt out of it; not enough drape.

About 1 yard of 1" wide elastic - you'll need enough to go around where you want the shorts to sit, which will probably be around 1" below your belly button

To download the pattern, subscribe to the Melly Sews Weekly Newsletter. AFTER you sign up, you’ll get a confirmation email – and you have to confirm or my email service can’t send you the free pattern. But once you do confirm, you’ll get access to not just this but several other free patterns. Woot!

(PS - if you have trouble finding either your confirmation email or the email with the pattern link, try checking your spam, trash, junk, bulk, social and/or promotional email tabs or folders. Free pattern links are also included in every weekly newsletter; these go out on Friday afternoons. Due to the number of subscribers I can't email pattern links to individuals.)

Please note that all my patterns are licensed for personal use only (no selling items made from this without a limited production license) and by downloading you are agreeing to this license.

Open the front and back pieces and lay them right sides together. You can see in the picture above how the front side is not as wide as the back. Match the side edges of the front and back to each other and stitch, then finish these seams. Your shorts will look like the picture below.

Spread the shorts so that you can match the inseams to each other as shown above. Pin and stitch as shown by the white line below. Make sure one seam allowance goes one way and the other goes the other way (arrows in the second picture below); this will be important when inserting the elastic later.

Fold the top edge of the shorts 1/4" to the wrong side and press. Then fold down again, 1 1/8" to the wrong side and press again to form a casing for the elastic.

If you want to add a tag to the back of the shorts, stitch it on now. Next, sew the casing close to the bottom folded edge, leaving an opening to insert the elastic. Measure the elastic so it fits about 1" below your belly button without stretching. Using a safety pin, insert the elastic in the casing.

Overlap the two ends of the elastic and zig-zag stitch them together as shown above. Pull the elastic all the way into the casing and stitch the opening closed.

Finally, create a narrow hem as shown above by folding the bottom edge of each leg 1/4" to the wrong side twice, pressing and stitching.

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Comments

These are great! Love the fabric! If you’re not a skinny Minnie as you 🙂 how hard would it be to make this pattern bigger, say using your hip measurements?? Because you don’t have a good fit pair to replicate? Lol! Thanks!

Melly, these are just soooooooooo cute. I love them! I am going to start on these TODAY! And I love the tank top with the binded neck, and sleeves. You are just too creative. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

They look sooooo comfy! I hardly sew anything for me any more, but I might just give it a try. Now to hunt through my stash for the perfect feel and color. LOL! Or maybe a few practice piece since my shape has changed.???

Thanks again Melissa! Beautiful and simple! Just the way this seamstress needs!

It so funny that just last week I needed something like this and altered your bias shorts to make them – and now here they are!!! And this method of construction is way simpler! And for others who want a larger pattern, the slash and spread works perfectly. Hers were for a 32 ish waist in knit. Mine were in cotton quilting fabric so I needed an extra inch. I made mine for a 34″ waist by adding 3″ width and 3/4″ length. Maybe that might help you all. Thanks Melissa for the post. Love love love it!!!

Can’t wait to make some. I love what you did, and was just gifted a bunch of crazy floral fabrics. Perfect for some pj shorts that aren’t yucky gym shorts. Thank you so much for the pattern! And I can’t wait for the tank top. I need a good pattern for a tank, I usually wear tanks under everything! And thanks for doing this self care sewing month. I need to spend a little time improving my wardrobe, and this is great motivation!

Those are adorable shorts! I’ve been looking @ my old boxers that I sleep in & thinking that I’d love to churn out another couple of them, so your pattern & tutorial couldn’t be more timely. Thank you so much!

This looks lovely and what a great idea to use quilters cotton for garments!
Though for some reason I’ve not received the pattern in my inbox :/
Could you look into that kindly…seems to be the case with Diana too.

Hi Melly! Thank you so much for the awesome pattern! I’d love to make a couple pairs in some knit fabric because I really need to destash and I just love sleeping in knits much more than wovens. I am going to attempt to make a pair today and see how it goes. I’ll probably have to take them in a bit since I’ll want them to be a bit more fitted. Wish me luck.

Please check your spam, trash, junk, bulk, social and/or promotional folders for your email. Please also make sure you are subscribed to the WEEKLY newsletter, which is here: http://mad.ly/signups/86876/join

Hi Melly,
Thank you so much for the many fine patterns ( I have most of them and working on the tank dress using ITY knit)…always looking forward to your blog posts….Can you give us a link to the store so that I can order labels. many thanks

I made a pair of pajama shorts using your pattern. They turned out great. I had to take them in a 1/2 inch to get the fit I like. I’m going to make some more as soon as I get time. Thank you so much for the free pattern.

Thanks very much for this tutorial and the free pattern, Melly. I made a pair last night while watching the votes come in for the Scottish independence referendum. Actually, the count took so long, I could have whipped up another pair if there had been enough elastic!

I didn’t realize that you would actually send out the patterns for my use. I am tickled to death. After I run out for printer paper I am going to give this a shot.. Thank you so much.
I have been sewing for 50 yrs. for myself and family. There is always something new to try. And someone else has something interesting to read about and try. It goes on and on. What a great hobby.
Thank you for your site and your hard work.
Mary Jo

Thank you so much for a great tutorial! I’ve always been scared and confused when I’ve looked at patterns and instructions, but today I made these shorts…two pairs in fact and am now excited to try something else! Thank you x

These were my first real sewing project. Found it to be a do-able challenge. Definitely a good learning experience for me. Looking forward to making subsequent pairs to see improvements. Thank you so much for drafting and sharing this pattern.

I made these today after a several year break from sewing and it was a simple enough project to help get back into the swing of things. Thank you for sharing this tutorial. I’ll be adding photos to my blog soon (opshopcreateblog.wordpress.com)!

Many many thanks ….I had fun making these from some Liberty tana lawn in my stash …they are definitely daywear though for my daughter and making them was a learning curve as they had to be sized up and I made them longer in the body too as she is not a fan of hipster height stuff. Fingers crossed that they will fit her well. I made them up with the overlocker/serger all apart from hems and the waist elastic where I put two rows through.

I have never sewn anything before and couldn’t find cotten pj shorts for my son anywhere that weren’t “for little kids”. I found your pattern and was able to modify it smaller to fit him. I used a serger machine for the whole thing as it was already threaded from my mother’s last project here and did a blind hem on the legs and also used it to make a casing for the elastic. My son picked out the material yesterday and today I have made 3 pair for him while he was at school 🙂

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2011-2016, Melissa Mora. This is my original work unless otherwise indicated. If you want to use photographs from this blog, please use only one photo, do not remove the watermark, link back and give photo credit. Please ask permission before using other content or designs. Patterns/tutorials are for personal use only.

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